Lenny Megliola: The ties that bind former Patriot to the Giants

Lenny Megliola

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2008 at 1:45 AM

The father, a big man, can’t stand still. He knows this game. Hell, he has a Super Bowl ring. He has seen and done a lot in the game, from high school star to a stud at Boston College to an honorable NFL career.

The father, a big man, can’t stand still. He knows this game. Hell, he has a Super Bowl ring. He has seen and done a lot in the game, from high school star to a stud at Boston College to an honorable NFL career.

But Steve DeOssie, former Cowboy, Giant (where he received the ring in 1990), Jet and Patriot has been out of the NFL for some time. No more bruised and bloody Sundays, no more pressure to perform, no more job security worries.

The pressure is off Steve DeOssie. Well, sort of. There is still one nerve-racking aspect of football he’s dealing with.

For the past dozen years or so, Steve DeOssie has watched his son, Zak, play the game. First, in the youth leagues of North Andover, then Phillips Andover Academy and at Ivy League Brown, where students prepare for a life as a captain of industry more than a career in the National Football League.

Steve DeOssie was there for the entire ride. When Zak DeOssie went to Brown, his divorced father moved from Boston to Canton, which was 25 minutes closer to the campus.

“I never coached Zak at any level,” DeOssie said, “but I was almost at every practice in high school, and I never missed one of Zak’s games.”

When Zak DeOssie’s youth league coaches asked Steve DeOssie if he’d like to get involved with the coaching, he declined.

Steve DeOssie liked it the way it was between father and son. “When he asked me something, I gave him an answer.”

Watching his son’s games has always worked over his father’s nervous system like a pinball machine.

Which brings us to the Super Bowl. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to sit still,” he said.

Even though Steve DeOssie is a Boston homeboy now, even though he’s a “Big Show” regular on WEEI and does TV gigs analyzing and breaking down Patriots’ games, and even though he played for the Pats, today he roots for the Giants.

Zak’s team.

He’s the Giants’ long snapper. When punter Jeff Feagles, at 41 the oldest player to ever appear in a Super Bowl, drops back, the snap will come from Zak DeOssie, the youngest Giant.

When this happens, it may be wise to put Dad in a straight jacket. It was like that for Steve DeOssie in the NFC championship game at Green Bay when he turned down an offer to watch the game from a Lambeau Field luxury box, opting for the pedestrian seats that exposed him to the freezing temperatures.

Zak DeOssie has always made his father’s football soul soar. But this: Your boy in the Super Bowl. How do you prepare for that? How do you keep the heart from pounding at a tempo you’re not used to?

“I told him when he started playing sports that if he didn’t keep up his school work he can’t play sports,” Steve DeOssie said. “The emphasis in our family was always on education.”

Phillips Academy had high standards. And Brown was Ivy. Zak had about a dozen football scholarship offers. Why not go to college for free? He chose Brown. The Ivies don’t give football scholarships, and it would cost his parents. His father might have to cut back on those expensive cigars he liked. But it had always been classroom before football with the DeOssies. Zak DeOssie bought into it.

Steve DeOssie made it clear to the boy that whatever he played -- basketball, soccer, baseball, football – there was “no quitting.” If you weren’t getting the playing time you wanted: No quitting. If you’re on a losing team: No quitting. Zak DeOssie ran with his father’s wisdom. They talk every day.

It’s ironic, in more ways than one, that Steve DeOssie should be rooting against his Patriots.

When Zak DeOssie was at Phillips Academy, Amanda Belichick became a friend. Her father (guess who?) had attended the school too. Bill Belichick went to a few of the games. Zak got to know him. Belichick asked him if he’d like to be a Patriots’ ball boy. The kid got to play catch with Tom Brady on the sidelines of one of the Super Bowls.

Today, the DeOssies hope Brady throws four picks and the Patriots finish 18-1. Blood’s thicker than water. And Steve DeOssie’s blood pressure may have to be monitored every time his son steps on the field. That’s the way it should be when a father and son’s football life, and love for each other, come into play.

Lenny Megliola is a Daily News columnist. His e-mail is lennymegs@aol.com

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